San Diego Sails
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| San Diego Sails | |
 |
|
| Conference | none |
| Division | Western Division |
| Founded | 1975 |
| History | |
| Arena | San Diego Sports Arena |
| City | San Diego, California |
| Team Colors | Ocean Cap White, Royal Blue, and Kelly Green ) |
| Owner | Frank Goldberg |
| Head Coach | Bill Musselman |
| Championships | None |
| Conference Titles | None |
| Division Titles | None |
The San Diego Sails, were an American Basketball Association team based in San Diego, California. They succeeded San Diego's prior ABA franchise, the San Diego Conquistadors, which the league shut down at the end of the 1974-1975 season. The Sails played an incomplete season only, beginning the 1975-1976 season but folding before its completion.
Frank Goldberg, a former co-owner of the successful Denver Nuggets franchise. Named the team the San Diego Sails for 1975-1976, hired the former University of Minnesota coach Bill Musselman and overhauled the roster, hoping to repeat Denver's turnaround, in 1974-75, from mediocrity to championship contender.
But the Sails attracted only 3,060 fans to their home opener on October 24, 1975 - a loss to the Nuggets - and fan attendance rapidly dwindled further as the team limped to a 3-8 start. (A "crowd" of 1,670 showed up for San Diego's third and last home game, against the San Antonio Spurs.) Goldberg soon learned San Diego was to be shut out of any merger between the ABA and National Basketball Association, reportedly at the insistence of Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke, who refused to share his Southern California fan base with a team to the south.
With the team lacking fan support or a long-term future, Goldberg euthanized the franchise on November 12.
[edit] ABA's Demise
The collapse of the San Diego team, combined with the failures of the Baltimore and Utah franchises, reduced the ABA to seven franchises, and effectively signed the league's death warrant. Despite this, the NBA absorbed four of the surviving teams in the summer of 1976.
From 1967-1971, San Diego was the home of the NBA's expansion San Diego Rockets, who also played at the then-new Sports Arena. Although they were to draft University of Houston prodigy Elvin Hayes, who would later become a star for the Washington Bullets, the Rockets failed to garner wins or significant support in San Diego. Real estate broker Wayne Duddleston and banker Billy Goldberg bought the franchise for $5.6 million, and brought the team to Houston, Texas, bringing Hayes home to his adoring UH fans. In 1978, the NBA's Buffalo Braves arrived in San Diego and became the Clippers; in 1984, they moved to Los Angeles to attempt to compete with the already-established Lakers. San Diego has not had another professional basketball team since.
